J-ru: I'm Lovin' It!

I had a refreshing walk home today from the Old City. It reminded me how good things are really going.

I am finally settled into my apartment and am adapted to getting back in the swing of taking classes. The classes I take are at the Judaean Youth Hostel, about a forty-five minute bus ride from my apartment. The hostel is really nice, but I am still happy to be living in the set of apartments owned by YC. It gives me a sense of actually living in the city and not in the bubble of the hostel. My roommate Scott and I refer to the hostel as "The Most Comfortable Prison Ever". Another pro to living in the apartments is a free bus pass. It might as well be called a key to the city. Although I still don't know my way around as well as I would like, it should only be another week or two before I have it down.

I am in Jerusalem for the studying portion of my experience. So, let me fill you in on my classes.

Ulpan (Hebrew): I moved up a level from last section, which means it is slightly more intense. My teacher is great. Her name is Sarit. She teaches beyond the text. For instance, this morning we all went down to the dinning hall and practiced ordering food at a resturant. I have ulpan 2 hours a day five days a week. I should learn a good portion by the time a leave.

Advanced Zionism: This a class I really enjoy. My teacher, Dr. Avi Berkowitz, is, well, a little different. He is a highly educated man, but sometimes his points of view are a little radical. I understand his points and, most of the time, the information he uses to back it up. I just don't necessarily agree with what he presents. Although, it is good to have to see a different point of view. Every week we go on a mandatory siyur (trip). Today we went to the old city, but obviously it wasn't planned out too well. I took advantage of time afterwards to explore a little bit of Jerusalem on my own. (See pictures below)

Jewish Prayer: taught by Rabbi Rob. This is a very interesting and thought provoking class. We spend each class examining and dissecting a prayer or set of prayers. Before this class, I never really put to much thought behind the history, meaning, and process of most prayers. I hope to get a lot out of this class.

Jewish Bookshelf: taught by Daniel Rose. This class is a basic intro into Tanach, Mishna, and other Jewish texts. We usually go off on some tangents, but I don't mind. I still learn a lot from them. I probably should be in an intermediate class, but I know I will still learn here. There is always more to learn.

Communication and Perusuasion: taught by two representatives of the David Project. The David Project is an organization in America the works with trying to spread factual information about Israel to combat anti-Israel entities. They work heavily in college campuses. I know that this class will be useful in the future. They have shown us some pretty crazy stuff that has been spread in the Arab media. Check out "Farfur". Hamas's version of Mickey mouse.



Well, Disney decided to sue. Guess what happened to Farfur?

Yes, "terrorist" killed him. Wonderful what extremest do for the world. By the way, Tel A-Rabi never exsisted.It sounds a lot like Tel Aviv, which was established in the early part of the 20th century, before that it was bunch of sand. Not a beautiful city like Hamas describes it.

But I digress.......
Besides learning about "Jew-hating-mikey-mouse-look-a-likes", I done a lot in the last couple of weeks. There is always so much going on in this city. I can't understand why so many of the people in my section have been going back to Tel Aviv every weekend. I love TA too, but there is plenty to do here. This last weekend was great. I went to two concerts and had friends over for shabbat.
The first concert was Thursday night. The bands that played were: Yaya (the bass player from Hadag Nachash) and Izabo at the Yellow Submarine, which is about a ten minute walk from my apartment. SWEET!


My friends from section 3, Zach, Dan, Aaron, and David, came Friday afternoon. Sarelle (sorry if I spelled it wrong), a friend who lives right down the hall, Malka (another friend) and I went shopping before the guys got here. When they arrived we hung out for a little and then a few of us head to Kabbalat Shabbat services at Shira Ha'dasha (A New Song). I had heard of this shul before, but was blown away by it. In orthodox Judaism men and women pray on different sides of the room and are divided by what is called a "Ma'chitza" and men are the only ones to lead the service. At Shira Ha'dasha there is a Ma'chitza, but women lead as well. Not only is that aspect great, the singing in the services was powerful and uplifting as well, which I have found a rarity in many othodox services. Everyone was poring all their might into each prayer. It was really great to take part in. Also, at the end of the service they pulled back the Ma'chitza to make annoucements. One generous lady even offered shabbat dinner to anyone who needed a places. An amazing atmosphere, and once again, my apartment is really close. Can't wait to go back.

We got back from shul and cooked dinner. I made some shintzel (fried chicken breast) breaded with bissle (a tastey snack) instead of the traditional mix. It worked out well and added a good flavor. Sarelle made a vegitarian dish of noodles, tofu, and various vegetables. Check out the eggs we cooked with, every single one was a double yoke. Hope I don't grow a second head out of the side of my neck.

We ate, shmoozed and had a relaxing shabbat. Saturday morning we inteaded to get up and hike the Jerusalem Trail, but we slept in unstead. Good thing too, becasue I later found out that it is closed druing the shabbat. Another time.

After my friends left Saturday I got ready for the second concert of the weekend. Guess who? That's right, COOLOOLOOSH! They were just as good the second time. The played at this venue called "The Lab", which is....REALLY CLOSE TO MY APARTMENT! Did I mention I love where I am located? I went with a good handful of people that live here in the apartments. Ok, so Coolooloosh played with Asaf Avidan and the Mojos. Two bands on one stage. Its too bad my batteries on my camera pooped out. So I stole a picuture from Hannah.


I don't really have a solid game plan for this weekend, but I'm sure it will be great. I'm thinking about going back to Holon Thursday night to see some friends and go visit the gan. Friday night I am going with Seth and Feldman to a dinner with a tour that is going to be here from Kansas City. It will be great to see some familiar faces.

Winter break is coming up. I am really excited. A lot of people are going home or to another country for break. I personally, find that silly. What a perfect opportunity to do something really cool in Israel. The people that are going home are more excited about going home than being in Israel, which seems so backwards to me. My friend David and I are in the process of planning an epic hiking trip. I'm so pumped. Also, my friends Keren and Pam are coming in around that time too. I am excited to see them as well.

Last night we hosted a Jam Session at my apartment with my new madrich Dan. I played a set of spoons :)


I will leave you with the pictures of my adventures from the old city to my apartment. Click them for full resolution.

A picture of the wall dividing Palestine and Israel

No Shave November

I recently participated in the event of "No Shave November". It really didn't go too well for me . See for yourself.

Just look at the awful amount of patchiness. I can't believe I walked around like that for so long.

So I trimmed it down to just the goatee, its still rather pathetic looking. I contemplating what I should do with the rest. Maybe a fo-man-choo. Possibly a silly mustache. Maybe like this guy:
juuuuuust kidding....

Goodbye Holon...Hello Jerusalem!

Sunday morning I said goodbye to the city of Holon. It was time to change sections and move to Jerusalem.

This is the room I slept in for the last 3 months.

Here are a couple of panoramics of the old apartment.
I left this for the next group of guys. Hope they like it.

Look at all the extra money I got from the stipend!

Bye Aviel! Hope to see you in Jerusalem, or when I visit Holon. Good luck with the new roommates.

Jared and Daniel <3 style="text-align: left;">I'm gonna miss the city of Holon. In particular I am going to miss my volunteering. The last day I was the I took a few pictures. Also on my last day I spent an extra hour or two cleaning the over hangings in the playground. They were full of dead leafs and branches from the trees above, all of which was rotting and weighing down the over hangings. The people of the community center were very impressed. It felt good to leave something small for them. On Sunday I was talking to Ines, the volunteer coordinator, while waiting for the bus to take us to Jerusalem. She said told me that I had done a great job working at the community center and Kol Ha'kavod (good job) for staying in the same place the whole time because they needed the help. It felt really good to hear that.

After shuffling my stuff out of Holon, I made it to Jerusalem. I am one of the forty or so YCers selected to live in an apartment instead of in the Judaean Youth Hostel. All of the apartments are on a common stairwell, so people are walking in and out of each others apartments a lot. Similar to a college dorm. The location is prime. Check it out!

View Larger Map

I'm not sure if the map is all that great, but if you turn it to satellite view you might be able to see that we are in the center of Jerusalem. My apartment is about a twenty minute walk from downtown. It sits on the border of Talpiot and Bakah, for those of you who know Jerusalem neighborhoods. There are a few downsides to living in the apartments. For one the commute is at least half an hour each direction. I also have to fix myself two meals a day instead of just waiting in line at the hostel. Also, all of the YC events take place at the hostel, so I might have to crash there every now and then. No big deal.

I am excited to discover all that Jerusalem has to offer and all the education I will receive while attending classes here in Jerusalem.

Coolooloosh!

Thursday night. THE night to go out. Last Thursday night living in Holon/Tel Aviv. Options: 1) Go to a YC party at a rented out club with drama and other not so fun things.....or...2) go to a sweet concert at a sweet location.

I took the second choice. With great pleasure. I was joined by Aaron and our friend Noa who staffed camp this last summer with us. The concert was for a band called Coolooloosh. I had heard of these guys from A-ron and had few tracks on my computer that I really like. The concert was AWESOME! I took some picutures with my new camera! They also featured some really cool artist such as, Asaf Avidan, Mira Awad, and some comedian who's name has slipped my mind.

Tel Aviv Siyur

A tour around a city that I have spent a lot of time in, but never got an educational guide.

We started the siyur in the neighborhood the Tel Aviv started in: Nevet Tzedek.
Nevet Tzedek was the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv. I had not realized it until I got there, but I had been there with my cousins over Rosh Hashana. The siyur was very interesting. There is so much history in such a small area. Most of the streets in that neighborhood are named after influential people who started the city of Tel Aviv. People like Aharon Shulsh. The funnest part was the guides were running around dressed up and acting as if they were those famous people. It was a way of educating similar to the wax museum peulot of YJ, but much much funnier.


The neighborhood is still occupied. Matter of fact, its one of the most favorable places to live in Tel Aviv. This area of the city is very artsy, relaxed, and beautiful. It is also the cultural center of Tel Aviv with many art galleries, book stores, museums, and the Israeli Dance Center. A small house in Nevet Tsedek cost at least a million dollars, not shekel.

From the old neighborhood we walked up to Herzl street. To get there we walked on bridge that passes over what used to be the only rail line from Yafo(the main port at the time) to Jerusalem. Once at the beginning of Herzl we stopped inside of the large building called the Shalom Tower. Inside, the whole ground floor has walls cover in mosaic. The mosaic was made by Nahum Gutman. The mosaic visually describes the founding and development of Tel Aviv. Grandpa, you would be in heaven if you saw this.

From the Shalom town we took a good 20-30 minute walk to Rabin Square. We talked a brief bit about who he was and why the location was so important, but that is for the next post. This day was actually the anniversary of Rabin's murder. To see how Israelis think about it, we were given a few questions to go ask people we saw walking on the street. Questions like "Where were you when it happened?" and "Did you agree with his actions?". It was really interesting to talk to people. A few people we talked to were actually right there when the assassination took place. This Saturday is the national memorial service, I plan on attending.

Ride for Fighters

I was joined by thousands of people in an event called Ride for Fighters. The event was sponsored by the JNF and took place in the Golan. The program's purpose was to ride bicycles along the area of Israel's soldiers have fought for for so long and to ride in memory of them. Read more about it.

The first stop we made was at an old battle post. The bunkers were still intact and everything. It was a very controversial place, its too bad I can't remember the name. From there we were bussed to nature reserve/hiking area. There waiting for us was a stage and several speakers. These included: the chairman of the JNF and Gilad Schalit's father. At the end of this opening ceremony each participant released a balloon. Just about every Year Courser and Masa participant was there. It was great to see people I haven't gotten a chance to see yet. I saw my friend Sara who I met at Sde Boker in 2006.

From the opening ceremony we got on bikes and rode the designated course. It was about 5 kilometers on a rough dirt road. Not long enough at all.

At the closing ceremony there were a "carnival" of many of the different units in the IDF. It was really cool to see things close up and to see so many soldiers in one place.

The closing ceremony was great. It was very patriotic and brought everyone to their feet. This ceremony included a live demonstration of the tank unit. We are talking live ammo! It was so loud and you could feel the percussions.

The whole experience was a great insight into the IDF and showed some of the nation's pride.

Tiyul to the North with the Tzofim

The weekend to the north was great! There was about 70 of us that went. A very large group.

I packed all of my stuff and brought it with me to Ulpan. Following class we loaded the bus and headed out, which took much longer than expected, but we got there anyways. By there, I mean some kind of camping ground outside of an Arab village in the North. After setting up camp and hanging out for a while, we began to cook what is called "Poiykah". Basically, poiykah is a stew consisting of: chicken, lentils, rice, beans, cola, water, spices, and whatever else sounds good. All of which is cooked inside of a cast iron dutch oven. It taste much better than it sounds. I ate more than enough. After hanging out for a few more ours Aviel and I decided to make use of the extra meet by cooking some kabobs over the fire.

Friday morning we woke up and did a hike called Nahal Yagor. It follows a dried river bed until it hits Kibbutz Yagor. The hike was a little more intense than most of the YC hikes I have been on. It was refreshing to be a little challenged. Once we reached the kibbutz a druze lady meet us there and cooked fresh pita with all of the fixings. More great food!

From the kibbutz we were bused to one of the Tzofim tribes in Haifa. I took a nap on the floor while we waited for the other bus to get there. A few of us went to shul that night, but made it just in time for Yigdal, of course. Back at the tribe we had some amazing cholent cooked by Hila's dad. More amazing food!

Later that night we took a walk to the top of Haifa to get an over view of the city. It looked something like this:

Saturday morning we packed up and started out on a hike that literally starts in the middle of the city. Before we hit the trail we stopped by the Bahai Gardens. The Bahai religion is really interesting, feel free to read up on it, because I'm too lazy to type it all out.

The hike ended at the beach where we hung and out and ate ( I opened about twenty cans) for a while and played an great game of Lap Tag. From there we walked to the bus, did Havdallah and headed on a way back to Holon. A great weekend in a great location with some great food.